


A Wish

by darklittlestories



Series: Story does Silly September [2]
Category: Norse Religion & Lore, Thor (Movies), Thor - All Media Types
Genre: Family Dynamics, Gen, Raising a Trickster is Hard, Secret Tag I Cannot Reveal, Sibling Rivalry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-30
Updated: 2015-09-30
Packaged: 2018-04-24 03:45:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4904338
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darklittlestories/pseuds/darklittlestories
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Odin has urged Frigga to let him take point on this one. His approach is largely to let their sons battle it out themselves. Thor must learn to control his temper, and Loki needs to learn to pick his battles and to—by the Norns, even occasionally—keep his mouth shut.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Wish

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Spoils of War](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2623787) by [Rynfinity](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rynfinity/pseuds/Rynfinity). 



The boys are truly on the verge of manhood and their parents are using the terms interchangeably depending on their intent: "boy" when Thor begins to beg incessantly for a puppy, "man" when Loki asks insightful questions about military history. And they have been fighting at a fever pitch for going on weeks now.

 

Frigga has been concerned, to put it mildly. Her weavings have not been terribly helpful, neither in soothing her worries nor in providing insight as to the near future of her sons.

 

Odin has urged her to let him take point on this one. His approach is largely to let their sons battle it out themselves. Thor must learn to control his temper, and Loki needs to learn to pick his battles and to—by the Norns, even _occasionally_ —keep his mouth shut.

 

He'd never tell anyone this, but Odin has daydreamed on more than one occasion of having that venomous mouth sewn shut. But the image gives him a visceral shudder and he forces it away with a burning feeling of shame. He reminds himself that all the Gods who are parents of tricksters must feel these moments of frustration.

 

There is nothing quite like the challenge of raising a God of Mischief.

 

Loki makes everyone but his brother work, and work hard, to love him. Odin and Frigga are saddened to watch as he begins to make Thor struggle to earn his affections as well.

 

This noontime, when the young men arrive for the family's luncheon with visible wounds, Frigga only raises a delicate golden eyebrow. Odin scowls, but secretly he is a bit pleased to see Thor's jaw is swollen and an ugly shade of violet. His younger son is often quicker to cast a spell than to throw a punch, and a prince of Asgard must master war skills, even if he is a master of seidr. 

 

However, he is well pleased with Loki's magical progress, impressed actually. The young man is making remarkable strides and is already far ahead of Odin himself at that age.

 

For Thor's part in the scuffle, Loki's lip is split, and the hint of a blackening eye is visible, and this pleases Odin as well. Thor has obviously gone easy on the boy. He's seen Loki look much worse after a skirmish with his brother.

 

The boys glare at their food, and meet their parents' eyes rarely and guiltily, but pointedly ignore each other. The meal passes in sullen quiet on the boys' part, but Frigga and Odin maintain perfectly polite conversation as if nothing had happened.

 

As soon as can be considered polite, Loki dabs at his now-mostly-healed lips and graciously asks his parents' permission to take his leave. They both nod, grinning, and then shoo Thor away, too.

 

The boys leave in opposite directions.

* * *

  
Both princes take dinners in their respective chambers after an evening of sulking, in Loki's case, and punching training bags in Thor's. 

 

Afterward, Loki decides to make an honest attempt to clear his mind of the lingering anger at his brother. He grins ruefully at his even _thinking_ the word 'honest', and pulls on his boots over comfortable leggings then leaves his rooms for the clarity of cool, fresh air.

 

He is unsure where his arrogant, bullish brother is, and so he considers for a moment where to go. Another fight between them would be very, very unwise. 

 

The clash this morning had been relatively tame, for them, and Loki's certain that another will bring down more punishment than an uncomfortable meal with the king and queen.

 

Thor had insulted Loki's prowess with seidr—he'd called them _tricks!_ That word was really beginning to rankle Loki; he knew well the reputation trickster Gods had in the pantheons—and Thor had been laughing out the word before finding himself instantly and efficiently silenced by Loki's fist connecting with his jaw with a solid crack. 

 

Loki had almost dodged Thor's counter attack and the blows hadn't connected with enough force to do real damage.

 

Loki had managed, while ducking and weaving to avoid further injury, to talk Thor down enough to remind him they were expected to meet their parents very soon, and they were already sure to face  _that eyebrow_ from Mother and _that glare_ from Father. Not to mention the icy bite beneath the false calm of Frigga's lectures or the angry scowl made so very much more menacing by Odin's gleaming eye patch. 

 

That glare of Father's reduced the young men instantly into errant children quaking in their boots. Perhaps it was knowing the violent way he'd lost the eye. Loki sometimes felt irrationally that the piercing stare of Odin's grey-blue eyes had been concentrated somehow and the remaining eye held the fierce power of both.

 

So Thor had agreed to a truce, and quicker than Loki'd expected. Most likely the reminder of raising their parents' ire had done it. And they had lived through the meal and their parents had all but ignored the obvious fight; now Loki is eager for a peaceful hour or two before sleeping.

 

Finally he decides on a path that leads to an out of the way courtyard where he can burn off his nervous energy with some spells he's recently mastered that are pleasing to cast and tend to lift his mood.

 

* * *

 

Loki is sat neatly on an attractively carved marble bench in the courtyard. The area is enclosed by tall, beautifully maintained hedges, and all within is quiet and still.

 

Loki breathes slowly and purposefully, slowly settling his annoyed mind into serene focus. Assessing his disposition as suitable for spellcasting, he rises gracefully and raises his arms in gentle arcs. As he moves them, trails of little lights follow in their wake. The amorphous glows gather themselves into shapes, and dozens of fluttering moths fly up into the sky, shining wings lit as if by moonlight flitting about prettily in the dark blue-violet evening sky.

 

Loki moves through more animals, some surreal—fish shimmering golden-white and swimming through the air, miniature silver dragons chasing each other around the hedgerow—and some so real they are indistinguishable from natural beasts. 

 

He pets a pair of kittens, white and ginger, and finds his temperament is, for the moment, much improved.

 

He resumes his practice, giving each kitten a little scratch behind the ears before sending them back to the place of unbeing. 

 

He makes a few more moths and then bats, and then, with his nature just begging for a bit of spice to his play, conjures a hawk that screeches and chases then catches each small creature down to the last.

 

* * *

 

Thor is wandering the palace grounds aimlessly, having started to worry he'd wear grooves in his floor with his pacing. He's filled with restless energy. He hadn't meant to anger his brother; it is common knowledge in Asgard that warrior skills are more highly regarded than sorcery. Even if Loki's tricks are amusing, and Thor is the first and loudest to laugh when they are, he hardly sees how such magic could be of real use to the realm.

 

He's still in a foul temper, kicking stones and dragging his boots as he walks, when he notices the lights. 

 

Over the hedge walls of one of the smaller courtyards on the palace grind, Thor can just see faintly glowing shapes, almost like fairy lights. He walks toward them more quietly now, as he's unsure what the lights are or from whom or what they've come.

 

As he grows nearer Thor is astonished to see luminous, pale golden _fish_ swim through the very air. He's reasonably certain now that his brother is behind this, but he'd never dreamt Loki could create things of such beauty. Then he hears Loki's deep, throaty laugh and it stings Thor to realize he hasn't heard it in some time.

 

He secrets himself in the shadows just beside a break in the hedges and watches and listens, rapt.

 

Thor is awed by Loki's magic. He has known him to conjure illusions before but he nearly gasps aloud when he sees his brother physically lift one of the kittens he has made from nothing and stroke its sleek fur. After the hawk has vanished, Thor approaches at last.

 

"Brother," he says softly. His tone is one of wonderment and admiration.

 

Loki trains a glare on Thor that withers him a bit.

 

"Truly, Loki," Thor pushes on, his palms up in a show of peace. "This magic is so lovely. I... I had no idea you had advanced so much in your studies."

 

"Had you stopped insulting my work long enough to ask," Loki spits back, "you might have heard." He sits down on the bench hard; clearly he is yet quite angry.

 

"Loki, Brother, you have my sincere apologies. I never meant to hurt your feelings."

 

Loki scoffs. He is no frail maiden with delicate _feelings_. 

 

Thor moves toward him and rests his hand at the nape of Loki's neck. His brother does not return the gesture, and Thor tries, he tries so hard not to let that hurt. 

 

"I only mean to compliment your skill, really. You are... Well, you are amazing, Brother."

 

Loki quirks a tiny, tiny grin. Thor can sense he will relent and all will at last be well between them.

 

And suddenly, inspiration strikes: "Loki! Would you make me a puppy?"

 

And Loki smiles a broad, pleased smile. He lays his hand at Thor's neck and purrs, "It would be my very genuine pleasure."

 

Thor lights up like the sun. "Oh, brother! Thank y—"

 

Loki cuts him off with a sharp, vicious, _"Down, boy!"_  


 

* * *

  
And Thor goes down. 

 

He thinks he might vomit as the world tilts with dizzying speed. Then he shakes his head—and _feels his ears flap loose at the sides of his head_. 

 

He growls—he literally growls, and that is the only satisfying thing about this situation.

 

His four legs have him at roughly the height of Loki's groin, and he goes after it immediately, but Loki is instantly off the ground, feathers a blur of motion and he whirls upward into the sky, until the black of his wings disappear into the night.

**Author's Note:**

> It hurt to have to avoid the Thorgi tag. It hurt SO MUCH! But it was the punchline, so I couldn't.
> 
> Inspired by Rynfinity's summary for the story 'Spoils of War' because this is exactly what I expected to happen. I needed it to happen so I wrote it. Silliness will be, well, actually *there* in follow-up chapters though these may not make it by the technical end of September.


End file.
